The Prime Minister Tony Abbott last night made a brief trip to Western Australia to celebrate mining billionaire Andrew 'Twiggy' Forrest. Mr Abbott attended a dinner at the University of Western Australia, acknowledging an historic donation of $65 million from the Forrest family.

ANDREW FORREST: It's a favourite joke of mine that behind every very successful man there's an even more surprised mother-in-law. (Laughter) Brook, Nicola's mum, clearly thought that her daughter had everything going for her but then married this young larrikin from Western Australia and I'd just like to say that it's really Nicola who, with our children, have settled us down when we did become very wealthy and we could easily afford more than we could enjoy in a day.

NICOLA FORREST: We do try to retain a sense of humour about our wealth. I like to say that the harder Andrew works, the luckier I get. But seriously, we do feel an enormous privilege and pride and a certain responsibility in being able to be in this position.

CAITLYN GRIBBIN: Prime Minister Tony Abbott again.

TONY ABBOTT: Wouldn't it be good to see our greatest magnates outbidding each other, not to buy a bigger boat or to build a bigger mansion, but to create a better future for our country?

CAITLYN GRIBBIN: It seemed appropriate that the day Mr Abbott revealed draft legislation to repeal the carbon tax, he'd share a meal with the mining magnate who'd complained about it.

FRED CHANEY: The Prime Minister has said that he's going to keep his promises and I think if he doesn't do that he'll suffer politically.

CAITLYN GRIBBIN: Can you think of an example where a repeal of legislation has been successful?

FRED CHANEY: I can't think of any major policy initiative that's been repealed. I think back on major initiatives like Medicare, and certainly that was amended but not repealed.

I think the last government put some large things in place, some of which I really hope will be maintained like the National Disability Insurance Scheme. But I think this is a clear political divide and it would be not at all surprising to see it go out the window.